Flexible Hexabits are in at kidEstore.co.uk

Hexabits are a new cool building toy for children.

The pieces are small hexagonal (hence the name) plastic mats which can be interlocked to form cool pictures and patterns.

We stock three sets, Hexabits Mini Projects, the Hexabit Theme Pack and Hexabits 3D Critterz.

Hopscotch from Alex

Hopscotch is a classic game for children and has been played in streets and playgrounds for hundreds of years. But I bet you didn't know it originated in Britain during the early Roman Empire and was devised as a method for training soldiers!


Hopscotch from Alex is suitable for indoor and outdoor use and is a great way to get children to do some exercise without even knowing it!

The Hopscotch game is priced £19.95 from the kidEstore.co.uk educational toy store.


You can find more information on the origins of Hopscotch in Wikipedia.

Scrunch Ball Featured in Independet 50 Best Outdoor Toys

The Scrunch Ball has been featured in the Independents guide to the 50 Best Outdoor Toys.

We think it makes the perfect beach set with the Scrunch Digger and the Scrunch Bucket.

DMOZ Listing

Kidestore has been included in the DMOZ educational toys page.

New Wooden Pizza Party and Birthday from Melissa & Doug

We have two great new wooden food items from the super Melissa and Doug range.

Melissa and Doug Pizza Party has 6 thick slices, 50 interchangeble toppings, a wooden rolling pizza cutter and a serving slice. It all comes in a wooden box for easy storage.


The Melissa and Doug Wooden Birthday Party has 6 slices, 19 toppings, 7 candles, a wooden cake slice and a serving plate. Again it all comes in a wooden box for easy storage.

Bothy can be found in our roleplay toys section.

New Tin Tea Set From Alex

What could be nicer then tea in the garden for you and your closest friends? A nice drink, a slice of cake and good conversation.

We thnk the new Tin Tea Set from Alex is perfect for a sunny afternoon in the garden with a friend and your favourite teddy bear. A lovely floral green and pink design and a great carry case mean you are ready to picnic just about anywhere.


The set contains four cups, saucers and plates and a serving tray.


Find the Alex Tin Tea Set in our Outdoor toy section.

New Chemistry Set and Crystal Growing Kit

As a child there was nothing I liked more than mixing up a test tube of cobalt chloride and then boiling it dry over a methylated spirit burner. That is why I am pleased we have managed to find a great new Chemistry Lab set to add to the Science range at kidEstore.co.uk. The set has everything needed for over 100 experiments.



In the same vein we also have the National Geographic Crystal Growing kit. The kit contains everything you need to grow 12 kinds of crystal and a National Geographic booklet to explain the formation of crystals during the formation of the Earth millions of years ago.

Explore the mineral world with the National Geographic Rock Tumbler

New from the National Geographic toy range at kidEstore.co.uk is the new Rock Tumbler.



The tumbler has a great, hard edged technical design with a window so you can observe the rocks during polishing. Once you have created your semi-precious stones there is even a craft kit for you to make jewellery and gifts.



We also stock the genuine National Geographic Rock Tumbler Refill Kit to keep you going!



Both of these items can be found in the Science toy section.

Zoob and QuickChess featured in the Guardian

Zoob was featured in The Guardian newspaper as a dishwasher safe toy for use in hospital environments. We figure this also makes it suitable for nurseries and primary schools.

Also featured was QuickChess the chess learning system. This was featured as it comes shrink wrapped and is therefore good for taking in to a hospital as the game inside the wrapper should be hygienic.


Read the full article here.

Horrible Science Kits at kidEstore

We have a great range of science kits for children and this now includes the Horrible Science Kits based on the bestselling Scholastic Horrible Science books such as Really Rotten Experiments

.

Our kits include Horrible Science Deadly Dinosaurs, Horrible Science Scary Sight, and Horrible Science Space, Stars and Slimy Aliens

Bananagrams Featured in The Independent newspapers 10 Best Travel Toys

Banagrams was featured in The Independent newspapers 10 Best Travel toys feature on Monday 21st May.






Of their top ten we also sell Airport Traffic Control (for £3 less than their retailer) and Thinkfun Rush Hour Deluxe.

Toys for kids that love Space

In our 'I Love' section we have created a new section listing toys and games for children that love space.


In here we have collected our items related to the solar system, rockets and space.


We have the Build It Space Explorer and Build it Rocket kits from Little Experience, Horrible Science Space, Stars and Slimy Aliens and Horrible Science Smashing Solar System Jigsaws and a World and Solar System Jigsaw from Ravensburger.


We also have a number of kits form Kidzlabs - the Cosmic Rocket, Night Sky Projection Kit, Solar System Mobile making kit and Solar System Planetarium kit.

Plenty of ideas for budding astronauts and space explorers but keep watching as we will be adding new items all of the time.

Toy & Games for children who love dinosaurs

To make it eaasier to find toys on a them on our site we have created the 'I Love ...' category which includes a collection of our toys on a single theme.

The 'I Love Dinosaurs' section is perfect for boys or girls who love their dinosaurs.

In it we have collected our Dig-a-glow Triceratops, Atomic Blox Gamma Rex, Horrible Science Deadly Dinosaurs jigsaw and Kid K'Nex Dino Pals.
New Dinosaur fun will be added as it joins our range.

Mathshark featured in the Independent

The Independent featured Mathshark in 'The Insider' on Saturday 19th May 2007.

Bananagrams Travel Game is selected as top toy

Bananagrams the fantastic word play travel game has won several awards and been voted one of the top ten games at the International Toy Fair in New York.

Toys for kids that love ... pink

For some girls the colour matters just as much as the toy. A wooden car is OK, but a Pink Wooden Car - now that's cool!



To ensure these girls with high colour standards exactly what they want kidEstore.co.uk have created their 'I Love Pink' category for them to find all their favourites in one place.

We have pink wooden cars, pink K'Nex, pink Geomag, ping games, pink jigsaw puzzles, pink dolls things, pink tea sets, pink fashion design sets and more.

Magnetic Wooden Letters

This lovely set of 58 magnetic wooden letters is great for encouraging literacy skills in youngsters. Get them spelling their favourite foods and snacks on the fridge.

The letters are lower case, brightly decorated and come in an attractive case with clear lid for storage.

New wooden food from Melissa and Doug

At kidEstore.co.uk we have two new wooden play food sets from Melissa and Doug.

The Melissa and Doug Wooden Food Groups Set is a lovely play food set but can also be used to teach children about food groups. The 21 pieces of food are divided into dairy, meat & fish, fruit & veg and breads. Each group comes in it's own little crate for storage, sorting and stacking.

The Melissa and Doug Wooden Cutting Food Set contains 8 bright food items. These items are pre-cut into 31 pieces and fastened with Velcro to give a realistic crunching sound. So much nicer than the plastic alternatives.

New Doll's Bunk Bed perfect for Baby Annabel or Baby Bjorn

We have a new wooden Doll's Bunkbed in stock and it the perfect bed for dolls the size of Baby Annabel or Baby Bjorn.

Made from replenishable rubberwood and MDF the bunks feature rounded corners for safety and a natural and pink finish. Perfect for those sleepover parties.

Toys help learning in Africa

Just stumbled upon a great report (originally from The Lancet) about how a lack of toys and constructive play is holding back the education of African children.

Research has found simple toys made from banana trees, mud, corn on the cob, old plastic bottles, or cloth and straw dolls can make a significant difference to education, mental health and self esteem.

Now we understand the issues are complex, and toys may not be the largest contributing factor and are probably not the greatest priority on the development to-do list for Africa - but it is good to see the value of toys and childhood being recognised and we wish the projects springing from this report every success.

Lights and Action Gears Building Set

kidEstore.co.uk have just added the Learning Resources Lights and Action Gears building set to our range.

Kids can learn mechanical skills with the Gears! Gears! Gears! Lights & Action Building Set.


Pieces snap together and pull apart to let you build anything you can imagine - there is no wrong way! This set 121 durable plastic gears and includes a power motor, flashing lights, glow in the dark stickers and more - all in a handy storage tub.


Button cell batteries included. Motor requires 3 AA batteries, not included. This set is fully compatible with all other Gears! Gears! Gears! construction sets and is suitable from age 5.

Kid K'Nex Dino Pals

We have the new Kid K'Nex Dino Pals in stock at kidEstore.co.uk and they are bound to be popular.

They are a new item in the Kid K'Nex range with the usual bright colours and chunky pieces for small hands but this set comes with a super stretchy neck and dinosaur body parts.

We predict prehistoric fun with these kits!

Aqua Beads Art Deluxe Set

Aqua Beads are a new innovative creative bead toy that you simply spray with water to create lovely pictures. Lay the beads out using a template as a guide, or alternatively create pictures using your own imagination and style, spray with water and they "stick" together. They're safe with no ironing required and are completely mess free.

kidEstore sell the Aqua Beads Art Deluxe Set which contains 1200 beads in 8 bright colours, water spray dispenser, 3 shaped bead templates (triangle, circle, square), 8 picture illustration sheets, 1 picture holder plus full instructions.

We also sell the 1200 beal refill packs, Aqua Beads Art Assortment Refill Set - Clear and Aqua Beads Art Assortment Refill Set - Bright

New K'Nex Subdomain

We have a new specialist resource for K'Nex on our site - the knex.kidestore.co subdomain.

here you will be able to get collected information on our range of K'Nex construction sets.

New Kid K'Nex Dino Pals - a model for dinosaur crazy kids

Kid K'Nex is great for 3-5 year old kids (and mine carried on using it for a good few years after that). Couple that with the fact that a great many 3-5 year old kids love dinosaurs and you get a perfect match - Kid K'Nex Dino Pals!

The same chunky bright pieces to keep things simple for little hands but with Dinosaur accessories to keep things cool. As with all Kid K'Nex it also comes in a smart plastic briefcase to keep all the pieces safe and tidy when not in use.

We're sure this Kid K'Nex Dino Pals set will never be extinct!

New Math Bingo games help teach arithmetic

Reinforcing maths skills is a key part of early primary education and these great family games really make it fun to practice your maths.



In Math Bingo each player is given one or more bingo cards which contains a number of sums. Players take it in turns to be the caller or announcer and lift a number from a pile of cards, calling the number to the other players. The first player to find a sum on their bingo card whose result is the number on the revealed number gets that number to cover their sum. The first player to cover all of their sums wins.



Math Bingo really brings a bit of competition to maths and encourages kids to practice their mental arithmetic to get quicker with their answers.


Available in two 'flavours', Math Bingo Addition and Subtraction and Math Bingo Multiplication and Division do pretty much what it says on the can.


Math Bingo is available from kidEstore.co.uk in their maths games section.

Television Limits for Children MPs Urged

Once again MPs are being urged to limit the amount of TV that kids are allowed to watch.

My own two children were outraged! For them (aged 4 & 7) the limits recommend half to one hours television per day. They found this pretty outrageous even though they actually watch less than this on average - the concept of a limit just seemed offensive to them.

They were most outraged that the limits for under threes is no TV at all. Their one year old cousin would therefore not be allowed to watch any television for two years. This seemed like a most cruel and unusual punishment to them.

What peeved them most though was that this 'expert' was ON THE TV!

"If he doesn't want us to watch TV, why is he going on TV?" they demanded!

Whilst we are not going to offer a view on TV watching we know we use educational toys to occupy our children and keep their minds off the TV. Give them a tub of Geomag or box of K'Nex and you will not hear much from them for hours!

Read the full report here.

PlayFoam magical modelling material

PlayFoam is a new material for kids to model with.

You can squish it, shape it, mould it and squash it. It never sticks to hands or surfaces, it never dries out and best of all if you mix a whole load of colours up you get a multi-coloured ball of beads rather than a brown lump as you do with some modelling materials.

PlayFoam is non toxic and non-allergenic, suitable from age 3 available at the kidEstore.co.uk educational toy store in the creative toy section with out other craft kits.






You can buy a pack of 12 PlayFoam colours for £14.95 or a pack of 6 PlayFoam colours for £7.95.